Rapid Solutions provide their top five steps to complete on every job to avoid a potential costly insurance claim.
Whenever you change your services, processes or products, the risk of a mistake increases and with it the potential for an insurance claim. This is particularly the case in winter when the mix of services can vary to ensure a constant revenue stream. And of course any time you deal with an unfamiliar pest or change products, the level of uncertainty and potential risk increases.
If you’ve found yourself in either of these scenarios, now is the time to take stock, revisit your daily mix and ensure you’re keeping to best practice processes to ensure you don’t run the risk of mistakes and subsequent insurance claims.
Rapid Solutions suggest you tick off these five critical tasks for each job:
- Conduct a thorough, documented risk assessment beforehand, ideally on-site to pick up every risk.
- Create a Safe Work Method Statement, to note any safety measures you’ll apply to risky activities.
- Document all job limitations and be realistic in your promise to the customer, avoiding setting unrealistic expectations.
- Check every product label before use, to ensure your knowledge of the mix ratio and application method is up to date.
- Record your work as it’s carried out, perhaps using the Rapid Inspect App, so you ensure everything is well documented in real-time and you don’t need to rely on memory.
One of Rapid’s clients found themselves in hot water recently due to lack of documentation, after conducting termite management services. They had failed to complete and provide their customer with a comprehensive proposal detailing the methods proposed and materials used.
The homeowner later discovered termite damage and sought costs from the pest company for repairs of $35,000. Because they had not provided documentation, the matter was difficult to defend, and a mediated resolution was achieved.
This is the perfect example of the importance of getting your paperwork right so you and the customer are fully across the agreement you are entering and what the work entails. Doing so will go a long way to protect you in any litigation should something go awry.
